


Ice Ice, Baby

by Alexgalaxies



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, Saint Claire, Sleepovers, return of the ice bowl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22581652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexgalaxies/pseuds/Alexgalaxies
Summary: Morgan's RA is causing issues and now another person knows about it. That person being Claire. Now how will Claire react is the question.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Morgan Reznick
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	Ice Ice, Baby

**Author's Note:**

> This could be read as a second part to Lending a hand (or two) but could also be read stand alone!

Claire was spending the night over. Somehow the blonde had convinced her that she shouldn’t be at home alone, smart, but she wouldn’t tell Morgan that. She was sleeping in Morgan’s bed because Morgan didn’t want her sleeping on the couch. She rolled over in bed and subconsciously reached out for Morgan. Startled by the nothing she found, she waited a few minutes then when Morgan didn’t come back she got up and went to look for her, worried that something had happened to her. Her mind created scenarios that she was sick in the bathroom or maybe she left because she didn’t want to sleep in the same bed with Claire. Either way, she wanted to know what happened to her because this wasn’t her house.

Morgan was in the kitchen with her hands in a bowl of ice. She couldn’t sleep because of the pain in her hands, so she had gotten up and put some ice in a bowl and ran some water in it. Then placed her hands in it.

When Claire finally reached the kitchen, she sighed in relief when she finally saw the blonde. “Hey, what are you doing up?” She yawned.

Morgan became nervous. She shifted her body trying to make sure the bowl wasn’t visible. “I couldn’t sleep,” she shrugged off the question hoping Claire didn’t see the bowl before she had moved.

Claire walked further into the kitchen, “Are you okay?” She asked in a concerned tone.

Morgan heard her coming closer but remained in place. Her voice was shaky, “Yeah, yeah go back to bed,” She urged Claire to go away. Morgan felt dread surge through her. “I’ll be back in a few,” Her voice faltered.

Claire became full of concern. Morgan sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “Morgan, what’s wrong?” Claire was right behind the taller woman, she reached for one of her arms. Morgan flinched away.

Tears fell from Morgan’s face. Her voice cracked, “They hurt, Claire,” she sounds defeated. It wasn’t completely about the pain, she was embarrassed. Morgan didn't want anyone to know about what she was going through, other than her doctor and Dr. Glassman, those were the only ones she thought needed to know.

Claire immediately grabbed Morgan in a hug. All of her concern was on Morgan, the tiredness melted away and so did everything else. Morgan was shaking under the pressure of the hug, not that it was too tight, but the fact of being hugged and comforted. The shorter woman hugged her from behind and just held her. 

Morgan couldn’t stand straight anymore, she leaned against the counter so she didn’t fall over. Her tears fell faster and her breaths were shortened with trembles and they kept catching in her throat when she tried to hold her breath to stop it. What came out were the sounds of her sharp intakes of breath. When she was able to breathe again, she spoke, “Claire,”

She loosened her grip, and took a step back. “Yeah?”

Morgan removed her hands from the bowl and turned around. Her tears were relentless. “I’m sorry,” her voice broke, a hand shot up to her mouth, knowing that her breathing would be hard to manage again and that she would begin to sob.

Claire grabbed her tightly again. A more proper hug. “Don’t rush yourself,” She urged Morgan to rest her head on her shoulder. “It’s okay,” Claire let Morgan cry on her shoulder. She stroked her hair trying to help her calm down.

They stayed like that for a few minutes. Finally, Morgan was breathing softly. Claire leaned back to look Morgan in the face. Morgan opened her mouth to say something.

“No, don’t say anything,” Morgan shut her mouth following Claire’s command. Claire walked Morgan to the table and sat her in one of the chairs. Claire grabbed the bowl and set it in front of Morgan to put her hands in again. Then Claire grabbed a cup and put some water in it and brought it to Morgan. “Here, drink some water, then you can try and talk,” Morgan nodded. Then Claire sat down opposite to Morgan, right in front of her.

Pulling one of her hands from the bowl she took the water and drank about half of it. “Thank you,” She put her hand back in the ice. Claire wiped the tear streams from Morgan’s cheeks. “Listen, I’m s-“

Claire held up a hand, “Don’t apologize,” She set her hand on Morgan’s arm. She looked the blonde in the eyes, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” She didn’t want to seem weak to Claire, especially after everything.

“You don’t have to, but I think you should talk to someone about it,” Claire rubbed her thumb in circles where her hand rested.

“I-I have Rheumatoid Arthritis,” Morgan felt so low and vulnerable. She was relieved that it was Claire here right now and not someone else. “My mom suffered from it,” 

Claire nodded to show she was listening. She made a mental note of how genuine Morgan was acting. She was vulnerable and honest and obviously needed someone right now.

“I was diagnosed recently and I try not to let it affect me, but sometimes,” she pulled a hand out of the ice and gestured to the bowl of ice. Morgan looked down.

Claire moves her hand from its spot on Morgan’s arm to Morgan’s cheek lifting her face up to look her in the eyes. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Claire pulled her hand back and leaned on it.

Morgan nodded, frowning. She couldn’t help but feel ashamed of it, there was nothing she could do to fix it. “I j-just feel so helpless, I-I can’t do anything about it,” The tears came flooding again. 

“You can do things about it, you can do stuff to ease the pain.” Claire was trying to be optimistic for Morgan’s sake. “You can take something for it and get a higher dosage if something doesn’t work and try different things to see what works,”

“I know and I am, it’s just- I-I’m scared Claire-“ Her voice cracked. “I don’t want to lose my job over this, I worked so hard to get here,”

Claire wipes the tears from Morgan’s cheeks again. Then brushed her hair behind her ear. “Morgan, you’ve proven yourself over and over again, you are skilled, you are smart, and you are capable,” Morgan nodded, showing that she was listening. Claire stood up and grabbed a dish towel from the spot it was hanging from. Then she sat back down. “Here, give me a hand,” Morgan gave her a cold wet hand. Claire dried it off. After drying the hand she set the towel to the side. She held Morgan’s hand between both of her hands for a moment then moved her hands so that she was holding it with both of her hands. She began massaging the hand, rubbing from the top at her wrist making her way down the hand paying particular attention to the knuckles and joints and doing each digit at a time.

Morgan sighed. She felt like she could cry again. No one had ever done anything like this for her before, because she was upset or otherwise. This didn’t feel like Claire was only doing it because she was upset, she was doing it because she cared. Claire was just being Claire. Claire couldn’t stop it and Claire didn’t think about it. The façade she had of apathy and toughness has fallen away and ‘Saint Claire’ made her way out again almost as if she was never gone in the first place. 

Once she was done with that hand she reached out her hands for the other one, “Okay, give me the other one,”

“Uh, you don’t have t-“

Claire sternly said “Give me your other hand,” Her wide eyes told Morgan that was was very serious about taking care of her.

“Okay,” Morgan did as she was told. Morgan smiled gratefully.

After drying it off too, Claire paid the same amount of attention to this hand and once she was done, she kept a hold of it in one hand and held out her other hand for the other one. Morgan didn’t question it, she just let Claire have her hand again. Now holding both hands she pressed soft kisses to the tops of her hands. “Any better? And do not lie to me,”

Morgan nodded, it was the truth. “Much better, thank you,” Morgan was very grateful for the woman in front of her.

“Okay, let’s go back to bed,” Claire stood up grabbing the bowl from the table and setting it in the sink before grabbing Morgan’s hands and walking with her back to the bedroom. Claire laid cuddled against Morgan with a leg over hers and an arm wrapped around her abdomen. Morgan held Claire with her arms wrapped around the smaller woman. They both felt like they could get used to this. They fell asleep feeling content.

**Author's Note:**

> not beta'd, subject to future change


End file.
